The Beauty and the Swordsman

Pei Lingyou's fiery red robes gradually faded into the distance.

They left a huge mess for Kuang Ye and the others to clean up.

The four Tongchen Sect disciples finally felt better, wiped the blood from their tiger's mouths, and helped each other to their feet:

"Where did this little devil come from? A girl like her, so cruel and rude."

"A girl? Have you ever seen a girl carry someone on her shoulder and twirl them around in her hands like she's playing with a feather—that machete looks like it weighs at least a hundred pounds! A person that heavy!"

"She's so arrogant, almost to the point of being cool, how come?"

"What sect or faction are they from? They've never even heard of our sect leader. They're neither righteous nor evil, probably not the right path at all."

The four disciples were still reeling from the violent, fierce, and glamorous scene they had just witnessed, unable to recover for a long time.

Kuang Ye had no choice but to personally step forward, help the leading official up, and pay Tongchen Sect an extra year's worth of food expenses. Only then did the official nod again and lead the remaining limping officials away.

"Let's pretend this never happened today, since we've never met!"

"Okay, stranger, have a safe journey," Kuang Ye replied.

The official, who had been walking away, stopped upon hearing this and turned back to question him:

Are you being sarcastic?

"Me?" Kuang Ye pointed to himself, his face completely innocent and serious. "I really didn't."

The officer gritted his teeth and remained silent.

He no longer wanted to deal with this group of "bandits".

He knew that Kuang Ye, despite his refined appearance, was actually just as formidable as the female demon from before.

Therefore, he merely twitched his jaw and left with a look of utter disappointment.

Seeing this, Shoumo sighed inwardly that the official was really unlucky. First, there was the gleaming broadsword that was about to kill him, and now he was being stabbed in the heart by a soft knife.

Indeed, it's hard for most people to imagine that Kuang Ye, such a respectable person, always wears the most serious face in the world while saying the most infuriating things.

Thus, the five people, who contributed both money and effort, sent the children from the prison van home one by one, found a clinic to bandage the tiger's mouth, and finally bought Kuang Ye a new pair of pants.

After finishing these tasks, the five left Moyu City.

This trip was specifically to investigate the imperial court's new decree to arrest children on a large scale.

They negotiated with officials in various places to collect taxes and save lives. Moyu was their final journey, a journey that could be considered a satisfactory conclusion.

With the matter settled, they headed south along the official road, preparing to return to Tongchen Gate.

Little did they know, a furtive figure was following them.

It is Pei Lingyou.

After sending Fatty back to Nuomi Alley, Pei Lingyou didn't rush back, but quietly followed Kuang Ye and his group of five.

There's nothing else to it, she just wasn't convinced.

The martial arts world is full of masters, and various sects are full of hidden talents. She is considered one of the best among them.

While I wouldn't say he's invincible, he'd easily be in the top ten of the martial arts masters rankings in the Great Yong Kingdom.

But that was three years ago, before she had "semi-retired" from the entertainment industry.

Now that she has been out of the public eye for so long, she was unaware of the existence of Kuang Ye.

He was fair-skinned and handsome, like a scholar with an air of refinement, but his moves were as powerful as thunder, elegant yet concealing sharpness, easily breaking through all her techniques.

What's most infuriating is that Pei Lingyou clearly sensed that Kuang Ye wasn't using his full strength.

This deeply frustrated the usually arrogant Pei.

It's only been three years. Is it because there are too many new masters in the martial arts world, or has her martial arts deteriorated too much?

In short, she was furious and was determined to get some advantage from Kuang Ye and regain her lost face before she would stop.

But then, whether it was fate playing tricks on them or something serious had happened to Kuang Ye and the other four, it's hard to say.

Their method of travel was completely beyond Pei Lingyou's expectations, giving her no chance to make a move.

People usually choose to travel on days with favorable weather and rest when the weather is bad.

But Kuang Ye and his group were quite the opposite.

When the sun was at its strongest, the road was scorching hot, and even dogs wouldn't come out, they used their light-footed skills to travel, covering dozens of miles in a flash.

When a strong wind and sandstorm raged, and even camels had to give way, Kuang Ye and his companions simply put on headscarves and charged forward, running for almost a hundred miles in one go.

Pei Lingyou carried a heavy cleaver weighing nearly 100 pounds as he followed along. After several days, his mouth was full of sand and his clothes were soaked with sweat.

I had just dried my clothes and put them on when it started raining again.

She thought it was no big deal; it was just a light drizzle, and it would be cool to keep cool while traveling.

But then Kuang Ye and the others stopped leaving.

They chose a place where the surrounding area was all barren land with only one inn standing alone, and went into the lobby to rest.

Pei Lingyou had nowhere to hide, so she could only jump onto the roof and sit there.

The drizzle quickly turned into a downpour, as if someone had poured a jug of cold water over her head.

When she heard the laughter of Shoumo and the others making a fire to keep warm and roasting dry rations coming from the lobby of the inn below, she wiped the rain off her face, looked into the distance where dark clouds were rolling, and felt like a melancholy, silly dog.

At this moment, Kuang Ye walked out of the inn with an umbrella in hand, and looked up to meet Pei Lingyou's gaze, who was soaked to the bone.

He looked surprised:

"Miss Pei? What a coincidence, are you here enjoying the rain?"

Pei Lingyou stared at him without saying a word.

She didn't know if it was because her lightness skill was too high and her tracking was too good, or if Kuang Ye had already discovered her and was deliberately playing tricks on her.

After traveling hundreds of miles, she was exhausted both physically and mentally. At this point, she decided not to hide anymore and weakly raised her hand to greet him.

"Come here, let's have a match. I was a bit tired that day and didn't perform well."

Kuang Ye was stunned for a moment before he realized what Pei Lingyou was so fixated on.

His eyes darted around slyly, a series of thoughts flashing through his mind. A quick, slight smile played on his lips as he said in a serious tone:

"I'm sorry, Miss Pei, I'm entering a truce period. That means I won't be engaging in any fights for a while. If you really want to fight, you can come to the Tongchen Sect to find me."

"A truce?" Pei Lingyou, who had roamed the martial world for over a decade, had never heard of such a thing before, and looked at Kuang Ye with a skeptical gaze:

"You're kidding me, aren't you? I won't accept anything except your pregnancy! Come on, draw your sword, one of us has to fall down today!"

After saying that, Pei Lingyou, despite her aching body, leaned on the knife and stood up with trembling legs.

Before he could even stand still, a white shadow flashed in front of him, and Kuang Ye lightly leaped onto the roof.

Pei Lingyou raised her sword and slashed, but Kuang Ye remained calm and composed, neither dodging nor evading, nor drawing his sword. He simply tilted his umbrella towards her head.

She stopped her large cleaver at his forehead, at a loss for what to do.

The scene was like she was fiercely preparing to kill someone, but the other person ran over and kissed her knife in a way that took her by surprise.

She took the umbrella blankly and watched Kuang Ye and the four Tongchen Sect disciples walk away in the rain.

She's used to fighting and killing all her life; she's always either arguing or getting into fights.

This was the first time she had met someone like Kuang Ye, whose simple words and actions could dissolve all her violence.

He was as calm as a still blue lake, as gentle as her unyielding raging winds.

"What a cunning man!" She snapped out of her almost-purified emotions, cursed, threw the umbrella hard on the ground, and stomped on it a few times.

She flipped off the roof, not chasing after Kuang Ye and the others, but instead went into the inn, booked a superior room, and took a bath to change.

After indulging in a hearty meal of meat and wine, she slept for two days and two nights, resting and recuperating thoroughly before setting off again with renewed vigor.

She charged forward, knife raised, squinting at the direction Kuang Ye had gone, and let out what she thought was a chilling laugh:

"Hmph, the Tongchen Sect, huh? I'll deal with you right now!"

With that, she kicked open the inn door and flew away like a hawk.

The innkeeper behind him clicked his tongue and shook his head, skillfully straightening the rickety door and beginning to repair it, sighing:

"The martial world..."